EVENT REPORTS NOW ONLINECJF launched its programming season in Toronto on Oct. 15 with a paneldiscussion on The Greatest Canadian Media Failure of the Century:Reporting on Aboriginal Issues. The event provided both mainstream mediaand Aboriginal representatives a chance to hear each other out.

There have been some excellent special reports, stunning revelations andno shortage of accusations on the media's part. So why does coverageinvariably stop after a flurry of reports on a single issue? Where's thefollow-up, the demand for accountability and sustainable change? Ourexpert panel takes on this topic.

In this edition of Panoscope, we are in Bagh, 200 kilometers from Pakistans capital Islamabad to follow the rehabilitation work after the devastating October 2005 earthquake. Three long years have passed; but the people affected are still a shaken lot.Country: PakistanUpload Date: 21/11/2008

Panoscope is an independent production of Panos Radio South Asia. We're committed to providing a forum for voices, views, and issues not often heard in the mainstream media. Non-profit media, development and other organizations can download Panoscope radio magazine free of cost for air or online use. Credit should be given to Panos Radio South Asia (PRSA) an undertaking of Panos South Asia. If you have suggestions for future programs please contact us at:

The bottom has fallen out the housing market. The global economy is unravelling. Opposition to U.S. military policy in Iraq has reached new and unprecedented global reach. As alarm grows over U.S. domestic and foreign policy, increasing attention is now being directed towards voices of dissent and change, voices from the grassroots and voices from the independent media.

Every morning, Democracy Now!, the nationally syndicated independent TV and radio program, broadcasts from New York City. Hosted by journalist Amy Goodman, the program has become an inspiration for independent journalists worldwide, and is mobilizing an unprecedented grassroots following in the U.S. and internationally.

Hour presents an in-depth interview with Goodman on everything from the importance of independent media in a time of war to the recent arrests of the Democracy Now! host and crew members at the latest Republican National Convention.

Hour: What role do you see the independent media playing within the U.S. today - and especially within the context of this past year's election campaign, which has been so closely followed throughout the world?

Amy Goodman: Elections are the beginning of something new, they don't assure something new, but they are a beginning. There is the possibility that huge change is underfoot in the U.S. No matter who becomes U.S. President, people are enraged across the political spectrum at the direction that this country has gone and no leader is going to bring us out of the trouble. It is going to take people making demands.

This is why grassroots media is so important, because we need a forum for people to discuss real solutions. The situation is now so desperate, from the global economic meltdown to the war, both of which are still unresolved. This is a huge moment for independent media to give space to people to think outside the box. It is independent media where these demands get discussed in a real way, where these demands get shaped, where people discuss and debate the most important issues of our time, like war and peace, and how we can work to create a more just world.

Hour: Can you share a couple moments in your extensive reporting leading up to the 2008 elections which you feel illustrate the critical role that independent media has played in these historic elections?

Goodman: On Democracy Now! there has been a constant drumbeat of authentic voices, at the heart of all the major issues of our time. For example, soldiers who resist war, some who have taken refuge in Canada. This is such an under-covered story in the media. From the low-level soldiers to the generals there is growing opposition to the war within the U.S. military, and on Democracy Now! these voices have been given space year after year.

For example, Adrienne Kinne - the military officer who was spying on U.S. citizens in Iraq from a military base in Georgia - she was recently featured in a story that aired on ABC that has now led to a congressional investigation. Last May, Democracy Now! produced the first national broadcast with Adrienne Kinne speaking out. ABC then picked up the story and now Congress is going to investigate on what the U.S. military was doing spying on U.S. citizens, including NGO workers in Iraq.

Opposition to the war within the military cuts across the political spectrum, as many soldiers believed in the war, and then went to Iraq seeing with their own eyes the horror. Then they come back and there is no place to talk about it in the U.S. except on the independent media, on programs like Democracy Now!. You can't underestimate the power of these voices.

Hour: In your original interview with Kinne it was highlighted that the U.S. military had listed the Palestine Hotel, a popular spot for journalists reporting on the war in Iraq, as a military target. Can you expand on this?

Goodman: Many issues were addressed in the interview with Adrienne Kinne: that the U.S. was listening to private conversations of U.S. soldiers speaking with their loved ones back home, that the U.S. was listening to communications between NGO workers in Iraq, and finally that they were listening in on journalists staying at the Palestine Hotel. Kinne also spoke about receiving a private email that listed the Palestine Hotel as a U.S. military target list.

Upon getting word that the Palestine Hotel was listed as a target Kinne immediately alerted superiors in the military that this was not a military target, but that it was a civilian target and that journalists were staying at the hotel. Superiors in the military were indifferent, and later the Palestine Hotel was shelled by the U.S. military, killing Spanish journalist José Couso from Telecinco network in Spain.

This is a big part of the story that we told on Democracy Now! at the time and we continue to pursue this.

Hour: Can you talk about the role that independent media has played in reporting the U.S. elections internationally?

Goodman: Independent media provides a forum for people not only in the U.S. but for people around the globe. Sure the U.S. is the most powerful country on earth - although things maybe changing with the global economic meltdown - but U.S. actions internationally do have serious consequences and so providing a voice for people to talk about what it is really like to be at the target end of U.S. foreign policy is very, very important.

Telling the individual story of someone's suffering really matters and this is what we do, we show how we are connected to people around the world and these connections should be maintained through something other than through the barrel of a gun.

Hour: You spoke about there being a potential opening for political change in the U.S. at this moment in history. In this context, what drives you to advocate for independent media? What role do you hope that independent media plays in creating that change?

Goodman: There must be creative solutions that we come up with in the U.S. and there has to be an opening for people to talk about how to create these solutions, how to solve problems in a different way.

The corporate media, with its hundreds of channels and so many newspapers, is so constrained, providing only the spectrum between the Democrats and the Republicans. For example, you look at the bailout - Obama and McCain, they both supported it. You look at the war in Afghanistan - Obama and McCain both supported a so-called surge. On health insurance, they may have different plans, however, neither supports a single-payer health care system, so that everyone is insured in this country, and [which would make sure] health care is a basic human right.

So this is the spectrum of debate in the corporate media. We have to break the sound barrier, open the debate to talk about solutions to solve these serious problems, solutions that will percolate up from the independent media. Our job at Democracy Now! is engaging in trickle-up journalism.

Media can be a force for peace in the world, it has that kind of potential, because it provides an opportunity for people to speak to each other from around the world, and when you hear someone speaking from their own experience, whether is it a Palestinian child, an Israeli grandmother or a kid from the South Bronx, the media can build bridges between communities rather than advocate the bombing of bridges.

Hour: Finally, let's talk about freedom of the press in the U.S. You and others from Democracy Now! were arrested while covering the Republican National Convention. Can you talk about this experience and comment on what it means for freedom of the press in the U.S.?

Goodman: These arrests are very important to mention because it illustrates how quickly the state will crack down on dissent.

Response to our arrests and the arrest of over 40 journalists covering the Republican National Convention exposed what the state was doing in St. Paul, which was the Republican Party working together with the city to stifle dissent.

The tens of thousands of letters that the city and state authorities got in protest shows how people will not stand for what is happening in this country, this crackdown on dissent. As journalists, we are the eyes and ears of a democracy and when the state targets journalists and beats journalists it is a real threat to democracy. Independent media, and actually all media, should become a sanctuary for dissent.

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